Phils likely to keep Lee

DENVER – The odds that the Phillies will trade Cliff Lee next month are slim. It isn’t easy to find a deal where the team giving up an All-Star left-hander finds compensation they find proper when the team receiving the pitcher also sees a 34-year-old who will make at least $62.5 million in 2014-15 and could be on the hook for $77.5 million through 2016.

Still, Charlie Manuel wanted to make plain to his best pitcher and anyone else interested that he took the Phils’ 32-35 record entering Friday night’s game against the Rockies as unacceptable, and that he prefers the team be in a buying mode when the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline arrives.

“I think when I hear Cliff talk about wanting to play for a winner,” Manuel said, referring to Lee’s postgame quotes after the Phils’ 3-2 win over the Twins Thursday, “no one in baseball wants to win more than I do. For us to win, we have to get better, improve. How we do that is another story, but at the same time, we have to play a lot better baseball than we have.

“We have quite a bunch of those guys – (Roy) Halladay, Cliff, (closer Jonathan) Papelbon … Those guys signed here because they wanted to be here, that it was a good place to come for a chance to win.”

That said, Lee’s frank expression of disappointment that the Phillies in 2012 and 2013 have been a sub-.500 team was more of a complaint to the front office than anything. After all, general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. considered it a wise move to trade two outfielders at the deadline last season – Shane Victorino and Hunter Pence – and retool by replacing them with Ben Revere and Delmon Young.

Pence is hitting .296 with 11 homers, 35 RBIs, 13 stolen bases and an .858 OPS for the Giants, who are paying him $13.8 million in his last year of arbitration. Victorino, who was slowed by a pulled hamstring last month, is hitting .277 with seven extra-base hits and five stolen bases in 39 games for the Red Sox after getting a three-year, $39 million extension.

After having perhaps his best series of the season in Minnesota, Revere is hitting .266 with 15 stolen bases, but just 23 runs scored in 61 games despite spending 35 of those games in the top two spots in the batting order. Young is hitting .224 with 15 RBIs in 37 games , and is such a liability in right field that Manuel sounded doubtful prior to Friday night’s game that he could start a game in Coors Field’s cavernous outfield expanse.

Asked point-blank if he missed Victorino and Pence, Manuel said their contract statuses made dealing them “logical,” but didn’t exactly wave a supportive flag.

“We realized we had to make a decision because they were going to be free agents. They had to do something with them,” Manuel said. “They either had to try really hard to sign them, or I guess they had to move them on and get something for them.”

As for the fact that the players replacing them are downgrades in center and right, Manuel made it plain: He doesn’t want scrubs.

“When I was a hitting coach after managing in the minors, I would say, ‘I want the best hitters in baseball,’” he said. “What’s wrong with that? The best bullpen, best starters, best hitters, score the most runs, hit the most homers , steal the most bases. What’s wrong with that? What does it take to win? Be the best team.”

As for the thought of seeing Lee, or Papelbon, or Ruiz, or all of them traded away next month, Manuel washed his hands of the matter.

“I have nothing to do with that. That’s not a decision I have anything to do with,” Manuel said. “I stay focused on my job and my main part is to win the game. I try to play the best team we can every night, and hopefully we play well enough to win the game.”